Photo Extremist: Creative Photography Tutorials, Photoshop
Tutorials, Instructional Videos Now change the color back to RGB mode Image Mode RGB Color If you want to make the image have a transparent background erase the background to be completely white Then Select the Magic Wand Tool set the Tolerance to 0 and untick Anti Aliasing and Contagious Click on the background and hit the DELETE key If you want the dissolving animation look go up to Window Animation Duplicate your frame by clicking the little page icon on the bottom right of the Animation window Select the FIRST FRAME make it invisible by unticking the little eye icon by the layer in the Layers window Now select just the SECOND FRAME and make sure the eye icon is activated Now select both frames by holding down the CTRL key while clicking on both of them They should both be highlighted Next click the Tween button on the bottom of the animation window Depending on how long you want the dissolve effect to last a short number amount of frames like 10 will dissolve the image quickly A larger number like 30 will make the dissolving effect last longer Set the frame rate by selecting all the frames and then there is a button in the lower right Select the second frame then while holding down the SHIFT key select your last frame this will select all your frames except the 1st one In the layers window set the blending mode to Dissolve You re pretty much done You can add other things as well like multiple frames To save the animation properly click File Save For Web Make sure GIF is selected in the second drop down box in the top right Save it Tweet Tagged as animated gif animation avatar gif Macintosh 128k photo photoshop pixel art pixelated transparent 4 Comments 24 Sep 09 1 Make Symmetric Symmetric Faces in Photoshop Cat Tweet This image was easy to produce and can be used on faces and other things as well The original picture from the camera was kind of dull and dark but adjusting the levels fixes that right up It was taken outside on the grass on a sunny day with a basic digital SLR Straighten the image so the nose isn t slanted use the ruler tool and then hit Image Image Rotation Arbitrary Crop out the empty space after the rotation Adjust the Canvas size Image Canvas Size to 200 percent with the left or right arrow selected Duplicate the layer and then mirror it by hitting CTRL A CTRL T Right click Flip horizontally You can also just use the QuickMirror plug in Adjust levels curves tones etc Dodge burn if you want Resize for web Filter Sharpen Sharpen twice Tweet Tagged as cat easy face how to image kitty photo photograph photoshop quick serious symmetry tutorial 1 Comment Newer Entries Older Entries Recommendations Entries Wineglass Splash Studio Photography Tutorial My Photography Best of 2013 Photography Masterclass is Now Online High Speed Powder Photography Tutorial

Photo Extremist: Creative Photography Tutorials, Photoshop
Tutorials, Instructional Videos 160th of a second or slower Photogenic StudioMax III 160 Big studio light that plugs into the wall I won this in a photo competition on a website called Photographer s Warehouse Photo Basics 402 uLite Video Lighting Kit Got this from Amazon the lights are bright and hot Haven t used the green screen too much Large Umbrella Reflector Reflects lights and diffuses light TRIPODS LIGHT STAND KIT Manfrotto 055XPROB Tripod Awesome tripod Legs and extender pole can go all over the place Manfrotto 496RC2 BallHead Ballhead seems to be really good I am liking it more compared to the tilt and pan Monopod Not mine came from a cheap tripod but pretty useful Sunset PR 5500 Tripod This was my main tripod but I brought it into the ocean with me one time and the sand got into the grooves and ruined it Velbon VS 3 Tripod Same thing got messed up from the sand and the legs can t slide in and out easily 2 Broken small tripods These were really crappy to begin with because they were originally made for telescopes lol Fancier WT803 Light Stand Umbrella Clamp KIT Kits comes with a light stand a small umbrealla and a clamp so you can attach the flash and umbella at the top of the stand Great deal AUDIO Zoom H4n Awesome high quality sound field recorder Adjustable Swivel Shoe Mount I use this to attach to my Zoom H4n to my Nikon D300s L N2MIC ZOOMH4N 3 5mm Audio Cord I use this to sync the sound into the D300s so the sound and video are combined together Azden SMX 10 Microphone I may sometimes use this along with my Zoom H4n now ATR 3350 Lavalier microphone I am using this for video work Seems to work OKAY only records sound in the left channel and is omnidirectional Seems to make a slight buzzing noise but it was the cheapest one I could find that looked reasonably good RANDOM STUFF Gray card Use the big gray patch on the back for white balance color correction BP1500 Calumet Backpack Love this bag just got it UN Blow Brush Old blower brush thing Sima Lenspen Love the non brush side Use air instead of the brush to brush little speckles off your lens ML L3 Nikon Remote Wireless remote for the Nikon D50 it can also be used to lock the shutter so you can record an exposure beyond 30 seconds in duration This works with lower end Nikon DSLRs Remote Shutter Release Cord For taking exposures longer than 30 seconds This works with higher end Nikon DSLR cameras Roscolux You can place these on your flash to change the color of the light SOFTWARE Photoshop CS5 This is pretty much the ultimate photography editing software Don t need anything else Photomatix Get 15 off with coupon code photoex I use this when I do HDR stuff All the links above are my Amazon affiliate links so if

Photo Extremist: Creative Photography Tutorials, Photoshop
Tutorials, Instructional Videos Tweet Filed under how to video 11 Comments 1 Apr 11 26 Floating Banana Photoshop Tutorial Tweet In this photography Photoshop tutorial I show you how to photograph a levitating floating banana Just gotta put your camera on a tripod use manual mode and take two pictures one with the banana in the frame and one without with the same aperture ISO shutter speed and white balance for each photo Then just stack them on top of each other as layers erase the skewer with a layer mask and BAM You got yourself a floating banana And remember if you are into this type of photography you ll love my Trick Photography and Special Effects e book and soon to be DVD online video course Tweet Filed under photoshop video 26 Comments Newer Entries Older Entries Recommendations Entries Wineglass Splash Studio Photography Tutorial My Photography Best of 2013 Photography Masterclass is Now Online High Speed Powder Photography Tutorial Glowing Lines Photoshop Tutorial Open Source DSLR Announced D800o April Fools Multiple Exposure Photography Tutorial My Photography Best of 2012 Hybrid Image Optical Illusion Photoshop Tutorial Snow Photography and Special Effects DSLR Tutorial DSLR Basics Stops and Metering A Room Filled with an Obnoxious Amount of Money My Photography Best of 2011 Trick Photography and Special Effects 2 0 Now Online High Speed Photography with Splashes Flashes and a Fish Tank Photography Tutorial Photoshop CS5 Surreal Portrait Photo Manipulation Advanced Tutorial Orbs Long Exposure Light Painting Photography Video Tutorial Steel Wool Photography Tutorial Fake Smoke with Flashlight and String Photography Tutorial How To HDR Simple Floating Banana Photoshop Tutorial How To Take Psychedelic Photos of CDs My Photography Best of 2007 2010 Photoelasticity Birefringence Photography Tutorial What s In My Camera Bag A Review of All My Photographic Camera Equipment Photoshop Tutorial

Photo Extremist: Creative Photography Tutorials, Photoshop
Tutorials, Instructional Videos ordered six bags and am probably going to get more later Get Grade 0 00 000 or 0000 Don t get anything at or above Grade 1 Steel cable or chain Can be found a thrift store or grocery store I bought a steel cable dog leash with plastic lamination covering the steel and a clasp at the end of the cable I use the clasp as a handle If you use just a chain you can skip out on the cable and the whisk all together and just shove the steel wool around the loops in the chain it just takes longer to do that Whisk I found mine at a thrift store for about 50 cents Any D SLR Camera and Tripod Cause like you need to take the pictures somehow Lighter or 9 Volt battery This is used to light the wool on fire Next you need to build your cage to hold the steel wool I grabbed the whisk and then attached it to a high quality steel cable that I found at Bi Mart for 10 The cable was about 20 feet long originally meant to be used as a dog leash and had a clasp on each end Cut the cable so it is about the same length as your arm After it s been cut you ll have only one clasp attached to the end of your cable but at least the cable isn t 20 feet long anymore I stripped the plastic laminated protective covering about 1 foot down from the end that had no clasp and then untwisted the cable into two different clumps After that I looped and weaved one of those clumps back into itself until it pretty much locked itself back up then twisted the next group around the first one and taped it up at the base of the loop for extra support If you don t want to make it all nice and fancy like this just take a chain and cram some steel wool in and around the holes Next light the wool on fire by using a lighter or by rubbing a 9 volt battery against it The wool will start sparking but won t really produce any flames Shake the wool around to help it burn Shutter Speed 30 Seconds Aperture F8 ISO 200 White Balance Tungsten Incandescent Focus Manual Focus How are you supposed to set the focus point in pure darkness Take an LED or flashlight and place it in the middle of the road or wherever you will be spinning your steel wool and turn it on and point it towards your camera Walk back to your camera and focusing on the LED then turn off auto focus Tripod Shutter Speed 30 Seconds Aperture F3 5 ISO 200 White Balance Auto Manual Focus Tripod In order to create the orb shape spin the cable around in a circle and then start orbiting your body around the pivot point Spinning around

Photo Extremist: Creative Photography Tutorials, Photoshop
Tutorials, Instructional Videos panorama exactly IS head here and read the description If you want to get right into making these things keep reading This article is pretty long so if you want just the jist of things watch this video If you are serious and what to actually execute taking 360x180 panos then watch the video AND read the article By taking 360x180 panoramas and stitching them in certain ways the environments will look like little planets inverted planets or a number of other crazy things It does require some patience but it is definitely worth doing People will be asking you How did you do that every time you show them a 360 stereographic stitch You will need a digital SLR or even a point and shoot camera and a program called Hugin It is also recommended that you have a tripod with a panoramic tripod head and the Flexify Plug in for Photoshop but it isn t required I will talk about all of these in this article Taking hand held 360 panoramas First set your camera to take SMALL JEPGs You CAN take larger jpegs but I wouldn t recommend it until you are successful with your first completed panorama The resolution image size builds up fast when you are taking 360x180 panoramas Take your digital SLR and use the widest angle lens you have Mine is an 18 55mm kit lens set on 18mm Next point the camera to the ground and start taking pictures around you Shoot in vertical orientation Traditionally speaking it is best to use manual mode on your camera with manual focus and this is the method I recommend using but I ve discovered that using Aperture Priority mode or even full Auto mode with automatic focus works too If you are using Automatic Mode I would suggest your camera to be set on matrix metering Once you have the first row done move your camera up and take the next row of pictures making sure that the field of view will overlap by about 25 or more On my camera lens I have to take 4 or 5 rows of pictures with about 12 pictures in each row This comes out to be about 65 total pictures But that is on my specific lens and camera it might be different for yours If you re using a super wide angle fish eye lens you can get the job done by only taking 5 pictures The resolution won t be as large but hey it takes a heck of a lot less time Try to rotate your body around the camera rather than rotating the camera itself it s a good idea to keep the camera in the same spot Once your done taking those pictures you need to point the camera straight up at a 90 degree angle This is called the Zenith Then take another picture straight down at 90 degrees try to move your feet out of the way if possible This is called the Nadir I usually mess up on the zeniths and nadirs and that s fine but the image won t come out looking perfect There will be a little black spot where the zeniths and nadirs are supposed to be You will see what I mean if you didn t take these correctly it s not that big of a deal Now we are ready to stitch them all together on the computer Download a program called Hugin install it then boot that mother up Using Hugin to stitch 360 panoramas Load all of your images into the program Hugin will take a while to process all of your images depending on your computer speed and what size you took the JPEGs at this is why I recommended shooting small JPGs It takes about 10 minutes to process all of the images on my computer so be patient I would recommend closing all other applications you aren t using This will save memory usage which Hugin needs I ve found that if I had too many programs running Hugin would run out of memory and not do its job Once the images are done being processed one of two things will happen Either 1 A dialog box will appear saying that it couldn t stitch some images together and you need to manually fix them or 2 a preview window will pop up showing your panorama If the former happens you will need to add points on the images that are in the same spot on each photograph Hugin will tell you what images need this If it isn t possible to add points this usually happens with the zenith or nadir just delete the images and then re align the pano Now go to the top and click Preview Here is your image If you want it to look like a planet select stereographic from the drop down box Then when you are looking at the preview left click on the spot where you were standing to take the photograph This will morph the image into a sphere at that specific point And there you go You can adjust the field of view by using the sliders on the bottom and right side of the image but be somewhat conservative with this feature because the image will get distorted on the edges if you over do it You can also straighten the horizon by clicking that straighten icon at the top but I usually don t see any difference when doing that SIDE NOTE you can also optimize your image Click the Optimizer tab and select which parameters you want optimized This supposedly makes everything more perfect but doesn t always work substantially sometimes I don t see any difference after using it Remember to preview your image again if you use this feature Close the preview window and then click on the Stitcher tab Click the optimize image size button this makes the image have

Photo Extremist: Creative Photography Tutorials, Photoshop
Tutorials, Instructional Videos available You have to trim the beginning which makes a new copy of the file then trim the end of that copy which makes another copy In the end you have 3 copies You cannot create a movie file of an exposure being recorded in real time You cannot set the shutter speed to whatever you want when recording video You cannot set the ISO number to whatever you want when recording video You cannot set custom values for each flash burst in the Flash Burst mode You can t watch videos in slideshow mode The AGC Audio Gain Control is horrible People have been complaining all over the internet about their frustration of it not being able to switch the AGC to manual You can t take images in any size you want Cameras offer Small Medium and Large image sizes for JPEG and sometimes with RAW The image size should be able to be customized to any dimension you want with any filetype including RAW With my 36 megapixel D810A DSLR I want to have the ability to make the images Extra Small Each pixel on the sensor cannot have its own dedicated ISO number Depending on how advanced they made this feature this could potentially completely revolutionize HDR photography Mapping just a simple gradient down the sensor would be nice though Built in GPS Nope I really am wanting this Built in WiFi Nope I probably would never ever use this but still You can t link two or more DSLRs together for 3D capturing The painted labels near the buttons do not glow in the dark There is no RAW for video You cannot create animated GIFs A lot of the things listed above are already capable of being enabled in the camera however Nikon decided to just disable them for the hell of it This leaves all the photographers who want more control over there camera in the dark with no other option but to suffer There is only one solution at this point and that is The Frankencamera The Frankencamera will allow users to write their own programs for the camera and use it as they please however it is currently difficult to get one of these because it is still in development and being prepared for public use Plus it is extremely bulky The Nikon D300s competitor the Canon 7D fixes some of the problems but I don t own one so I can t tell you which problems it fixes and which ones it doesn t I m assuming that it only can fix a few Based on a video review I saw of it the only things better than the Nikon is that it can take longer video footage it s 18 megapixels compared to 12 and it can meter the y axis horizon ohhhh big deal People seem to make jokes about this post and say things like well this camera can t make me toast in the morning so therefore it is useless That is because the camera wasn t designed to make toast and it would need new hardware in order to do that and would be ridiculous to begin with Most of the items that I have listed above do not require any new hardware to be installed into the camera I am simply trying to point out the un met potential DSLR cameras have There are so many creative and very practical useful features that could be implemented into cameras that are not being taken advantage of Take a look at this theoretical open source DSLR that implements some of the features listed above and hopefully you will come to some conclusion on why I hate camera companies for not progressing their technology beyond the point of just adding more megapixels and a faster frame rate each year to their cameras If they would just make the camera open source the technology could progress so much faster They are ruining it for everyone Is there anything you think should be added to the list 11 16 2010 UPDATE Yes I researched the camera before buying it and believe it or not I felt that it was the best one on the market for me However that does not mean that I like it or am even the happy with it At most I am truly disappointed with the camera s available on the market today If you gave me the most high end top notch flagship camera from Nikon or Canon I still would not be impressed because of how impractical it is If the firmware was open source however then that would be completely different story and paying 3 grand for a camera WOULD be worth it I m surprised Nikon and Canon even give us the option to change the shutter speed and ISO considering all the other hundreds of other features they are holding back Please write a comment below and tell me what you think Tweet Tagged as camera canon commercialism consumerism d300 d300s dslr expensive frankencamera functions nikon open source photography product review slr sucks useless 82 Comments 9 Nov 09 8 How To Enhance Your Landscape Photographs To Be More Colorful In Adobe Camera RAW Tweet Taking very vibrant saturated lush landscapes has never been easier when taking images in the RAW format You can easily get perfect looking images in post processing when using Adobe Camera RAW which is included with Photoshop When I say lush I mean full and rich with colors I ll show you a before and after example and then tell you the recipe The first picture is the original RAW the 2nd is after post processing in A C R As you can see in the first photo the sky was hazy and what should be green is a desaturated stupid yellow color It s really easy to fix this up HSL Grayscale tab Hue subtab When you open your RAW in Adobe Camera

Photo Extremist: Creative Photography Tutorials, Photoshop
Tutorials, Instructional Videos some sort of tan colored gel over your flash unit to make sure the lighting in the background and on the subject match color temperature Bokeh Photos Additional Resources on Bokeh Photography DSLR Bokeh Tutorial Shaped Bokeh Tutorial Creating Faux Bokeh Backgrounds in Photoshop Tutorial Bokeh Wikipedia Page iPhone App Synth Cam simulates shallow depth of field bokeh shots Tweet Tagged as 1 8 aperture blur bokeh defocus depth of field dslr f1 8 how to howto photography shallow depth of field tutorial video video tutorial 10 Comments 4 Dec 10 11 How To Photograph A Flying Cat Tweet In order to take a photograph of a cat flying above your head levitating in mid air or floating you will want to use a short shutter speed of 1 200 or faster such as 1 1000 In this example I was using 1 400 Settings Nikon D50 18 55mm lens 1 400 sec f5 ISO 200 Custom WB Manual Mode Manual Focus Equipment Nikon D50 DSLR Tripod ML L3 Wireless Remote for older Nikon cameras Use the RF 602 for higher end cameras This thing is ace Nikon and Canon versions available Photogenic StudioMax III 160 This light was hooked up to my camera using a PC sync cord and hot shoe adapter an old Sunpak auto zoom 344 D THYRISTOR flash with optical slave attached Adobe Photoshop CS5 Alien Skin Exposure 3 Photoshop Plug in As you can see in the video I was using two flashes both at full power The big studio flash was closer to me slightly to the left which casts the shadow I also had another external flash in the far corner of the room just to fill in some extra light Both lights were pointing up at the ceiling This makes it so the light is very soft and diffused My camera was locked in on a tripod which is very important The camera needs to be in the same location in 3D space because we are doing a composite of two photographs This is trick photography folks I also used a wireless remote for two reasons 1 To keep the camera in the same location on the tripod even a slight bump will mess things up and 2 to take the picture when I need to at just the right time Chances are that your first shot won t be perfect so you will have to keep taking photos of the cat being launched into the air multiple times Careful not to do it too many times all at once or s he might get upset Because I was working with flashes the light in my room and the lights on the tree lamp didn t effect the photograph in anyway because they weren t bright enough to go against the insanely bright flashes Remember to use manual mode we are working in a studio environment so manual mode is the most practical and manual focus because if you don t when

Photo Extremist: Creative Photography Tutorials, Photoshop
Tutorials, Instructional Videos and also moved it upward a little higher from the road And that s it Here are some other floating levitating jumping zen pictures click to enlarge them Tweet Tagged as art dark flash floating how to jumping levitating night night time nikon d50 photography photoshop surreal tricks tutorial zen 12 Comments 5 Sep 09 2 Photographing Long Exposures of Sparklers Tutorial Tweet Here is a how to tutorial on long exposure photography with sparklers I also show you how to make perfectly symmetrical psychedelic patterns just by using your DSLR Adobe Photoshop and sparks from your fireworks in part II of the tutorial Make sure to pick up your fireworks the day AFTER Independence Day because they are usually on sale Tweet Tagged as abstract colorful experimental fire fireworks flexify flexify 2 fun long exposure night photography photoshop pictures psychedelic rainbow sparklers sparks tut tutorial 2 Comments 5 Sep 09 1 How to make a stop motion film using MonkeyJam Wax and or Windows Movie Maker Tweet Would you like me to tell you how to to make a stop motion movie with music You will need a program called MonkeyJam to put all of the frames together and a program called Wax if you want sound or music included in your video You could probably just use Windows Movie Maker too But first let me tell you what settings to use on your camera All of your images must eventually be 640x480 pixels in dimensions This is the standard aspect ratio for videos and the video must be exported at this size in order for it to work My Nikon D50 has a setting where I can take pictures at this size but if your camera does not have that then use fotosizer to resize all of your images to that size It s best to shoot small JPEGs on your camera when doing stop motion anyways because this saves up space on your memory card allowing you to take more photos So what is the best way to make a stop motion or time lapse video Have everything set to MANUAL MODE and also switch to MANUAL FOCUSING This makes all the frames you shoot to have the same brightness and depth of field settings I used a tripod and a remote to make my video but you can make these without them If you want to be in the frame and have no remote set your camera on a flat surface and use the self timer on the camera or have someone else take the pictures for you It isn t as good as having a tripod remote but it s a lot better than having to take frames hand held Remember to shoot all of your frames in horizontal orientation as you can see in my video when I eat the sandwich I was shooting that in vertical orientation and it came out sideways Anyways once you have all of your frames shot download them